1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to sewage treatment; and, more particularly, to a system for treating wastewater.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The migration of people and industry to areas beyond public sewers has resulted in the mass use of septic tanks. Lacking efficient equipment, little could be done to counteract the capacity of the soil to accept sewage waste or the effect these wastes have on sub-surface ground water commonly used by home and community as "clean" drinking water. There are a great many septic tank and associated tile field failures. Foul smelling, germ laden sewage is often forced to the surface in and around inhabited areas, and well water contamination has resulted in many areas.
Septic tanks are anaerobic wastewater treatment systems having many disadvantages. Today, many conventional single homes are employing aerobic wastewater treatment systems which are designed to meet accepted criteria relative to load factors, retention times, aerates and the like. Load fluctuations in these single homes require that one exert close control and maintenance to insure good treatment. As a result, many sanitary engineering agencies have discouraged the use of single home aerobic treatment systems. Accordingly, a wastewater treatment system that provides the compartmentation, hydraulic flows and oxygen necessary to optimize the aerobic processes and which does not have the disadvantages of a septic tank is needed in the marketplace.
The disadvantages of the well-accepted septic tank anaerobic system, that is, bacterial action without the presence of oxygen, is as follows. Underground sewage disposal systems, such as septic tanks, have raw sewage entering the tank, which is concrete, through a submerged inlet pipe. Within the tank, biochemical action converts some of the sewage solids to liquid form and others to gas. Three levels of sewage result. Solids sink to the bottom and form a sludge layer. Oily materials, which are lighter than water, float to the top and form a scum layer which is disposed upon the balance of the liquid, namely effluent, which occupies most of the volume of the system. Such systems are disposed in holes without any space between the dirt and the walls, in order to prevent any possible rupture due to pressure buildup. The location of the sewage system may be marked at the ground surface just above the pump out opening. When the sludge layer has built up to a sufficient amount, it becomes necessary for a professional septic tank cleaner crew to pump out the contents of the tank. Due to the nature of a septic tank system, it is possible that the sludge and scum materials could back up through the home sewer system from the inlet pipe. Periodic cleaning of the sewage tank can by costly, but is, of course, necessary in that basically a septic tank is a batch process disposal system.
Improvements have been made in the waste disposal art by the design of fiberglass septic tanks to replace concrete units, The waste disposal art has also moved toward an aerobic-type system, such a system being disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,536 to Kelsey.